dig·it·al im·mi·grant

“A person born or brought up before the widespread use of digital technology.”

Chances are that if you are reading this, you are not a digital native. Think three-year old with iPad. Being an early adopter of technology back in 1976, my experience grew from mainframe computers (IBM, Burroughs) to some of the first microcomputers (Altair, Commodore, Radio Shack, and Apple). Back in the late 70's, I came across a book, Computer Power and Human Reason,  written by  MIT professor, Joseph Weisenbaum.  What made this a landmark book and still relevant today, was its examination about the relationship of human beings to technology. Here is an interesting comparison of then and now and invites where we might be headed and its impact on our lives.  A Warning for the Post-Augmented Age.

Showing Up

I find birthdays a good time to reflect and set new intentions or revisit old ones. My last post on Dharma Seeds is dated Dec 15, 2016. So here I am again recommitting to journal, share something that moves my soul, a way of showing up for myself as I just turned 68.

Sending out gratitude for my family and friends who sent out birthday wishes via social media, email, and actual postcards. May we continue to follow our path wherever it leads us.

Benedicto:  May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view. May your mountains rise into and above the clouds.May your rivers flow without end, meandering through pastoral valleys tinkling with bells, past temples and castles and poets towers into a dark primeval forest where tigers belch and monkeys howl, through miasmal and mysterious swamps and down into a desert of red rock, blue mesas, domes and pinnacles and grottos of endless stone, and down again into a deep vast ancient unknown chasm where bars of sunlight blaze on profiled cliffs, where deer walk across the white sand beaches, where storms come and go as lightning clangs upon the high crags, where something strange and more beautiful and more full of wonder than your deepest dreams waits for you -- beyond that next turning of the canyon walls.
– Edward Abbey

The Work That Reconnects - A film by Pat van Boeckel

“The heart has to find greater space for rebellion.”

— Harry Belafonte

As we move towards the end of the year, there is a strong sense that permeates through me of a pending storm that will call us to no longer remain silent with undigested sorrow as we witness the collapse of industrial-growth society. As dinosaurs struggling to free themselves from the tarpits, old structures will unleash a tenacity of force to defend their last stand against a changing world and the force of justice that confronts them and speaks truth to power.

President-elect Trump, cabinet choices of the alt-right, wall street and oil interests against social justice movements like Black Lives Matter and Standing Rock, are an indication of the polarity of opposites that we must learn to navigate. A synchronicity of voices around the world of the likes of Charles Eisenstein, Naomi Klein, and Harry Belafonte, to name a few,  are responding to the authoritarian and nationalist direction this country is leaning towards.

So what is it that I can personally do? It is not business as usual anymore. Can I afford to slip into a complacency and expect others to do what is needed? Can I acknowledge my own white privilege and what it means to live on stolen land? Isn't this grief for the world rooted in love for what we are losing?

In this beautifully filmed documentary, Joanna Macy speaks to the importance of what it means to be alive at this time and what we are called to do. Through interviews with activists Ann Symens-Bucher, Belinda Griswold, Barbara Ford, Chris Jordan, Jade BeGay, Mallika Nair, and Pancho Ramos-Stierle, we see how the Work That Reconnects can transform our pain for the world into courage and resilience and cultivate what we can offer the world community.